The commonwealth of Massachusetts has finalised its decision to standardise desktop applications on OpenDocument, a format not supported by Microsoft Office. State agencies in the executive branch are now supposed to migrate to OpenDocument-compliant applications by 1 January, 2007, a change that will affect about 50 000 desktop PCs. The reference model also confirms that Adobe's PDF format is considered an "open format".

Hi harmison,
do you think it is much better to have .doc, .xls etc. shoven down your throat if you live in another country? Believe me, it's not so, it's even worse: at least all those living in the USA can think "OK, MS is a monster, but it's our monster!", which I think explains why there are so many MS apologists.

I think it's great that people and governments (also local USA goverments ... alas) are waking up and refusing Microsoft's tactics and arrogance. And again, no one is barring them from compete, it's this idea of "free competition" on the merits alone that's totally outside their view of the world.